Bloomberg News: Romney ‘rented’ Mormon church’s exemption to defer taxes for 15 years

[Dollface]

138. Mr. President is right, RoMoney doesn't need a new accountant

I hope no one holds this against the CRUTS that were set-up after the Revenue Reconciliation Act of 1997. Most CRUTS today are used like the one Ms. Toad describes.

Without knowing the terms of Mr. Romney's CRUT I'm not sure that this is even a story. The article states that the value of the remainder declined from $750,000 to $420,000 but without knowing the terms of the CRUT you can't tell if the decrease was the result of those terms or the result of market decline at the time the remaining assets were distributed to the charity. The charity is ahead $420,000 in any case.

Prior to 1997 there was a way to treat all annuity payments as a return of capital by use of a "deemed sale/forward sale" of the contributed assets. The annuity payments were therefore not subject to tax, a situation that generally only happens today once the capital gain income has all been distributed to the annuitant over the period of the annuity and taxed. I sure wish I could see his tax returns to find out if the transaction was abusive or just good tax planning.

Not that it would influence my vote. I'm just curious as to whether there is anything there. We don't want to have a RoMoney/Libya moment.



I couldn't find a nerd smilie.